News & Events

Wind Ensemble, Big Band in doubleheader concert

Dr. Ken Narducci directs the La Sierra University Wind Ensemble

March 5, 2013By Darla Martin Tucker

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – (www.lasierra.edu) Usually, La Sierra University’s Wind Ensemble and Big Band grab the spotlight in separate performance nights. But on Sat., March 9 they will share the stage, providing an opportunity to sample their different musical styles, instruments, and programming.

Under direction of Ken Narducci, the Wind Ensemble and Big Band will perform at 7 p.m. at La Sierra’s Hole Memorial Auditorium. Admission is free. The first half of the concert will feature the 45-member Wind Ensemble playing a slate of modern works that include “Five Flat” by Julie Giroux, an Emmy award-winning composer, and “Vesuvius” by Frank Ticheli, whose compositions have been performed by major symphonies around the United States and Europe.

During the last half, the 21-member Big Band will take listeners through a wealth of jazz and popular compositions by composers ranging from renowned Southern California jazz and big band musician Gordon Goodwin, to the late Jerome Kern, an early twentieth century Broadway and film composer and creator of the popular musical, “Show Boat.”

The band’s program includes Goodwin’s “The Jazz Police,” Kern’s “I’ve Told Ev’ry Little Star” arranged by Michael Philip Mossman, and “Beauty and the Beast” by Academy Award-winning composer Alan Menken, with an arrangement by Goodwin.

The Wind Ensemble will also perform its program in a featured gala concert March 16 during the 34th Annual Dr. Lawrence R. Sutherland Wind Festival at California State University, Fresno. In March 2010 the ensemble landed a coveted invitational spot performing a full concert during the College Band Directors National Association’s West/Northwest Conference in Reno, Nev.